Assoc. Prof. Stanev: Lawyers Resisted Anti-Jewish Legislation During World War II

Lawyers, one of the most powerful professional guilds in Bulgaria, showed a serious - albeit somewhat passive - resistance to legislation they considered superfluous, even harmful to Bulgaria, Assoc. Prof. Vladimir Stanev of the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia said in an interview for BTA on Thursday, as a conclusion of his work on the study "The Role of Lawyers in the Rescue of Bulgarian Jews during World War II", a project of the Supreme Bar Council, prepared jointly with his colleague Dr. Svetoslav Zhivkov.

Speaking about the anti-Jewish legislation, which the Bulgarian lawyers have expressed their disagreement with, Stanev said that at the end of 1940 the National Assembly passed the Protection of the Nation Act, which was not only against the Jews. Its first part was against secret international organizations - Freemasonry, Rotary Clubs and the like. The law contained many provisions that affected the Jewish population in Bulgaria - Bulgarian Jews were not allowed to hold public offices, they were forbidden to become members of Parliament, municipal councillors, mayors, etc. Jews had to declare their property within a certain period of time, and whoever failed to do so had to have their property seized, the historian explained.

According to certain provisions in the law, Jewish citizens were practically forbidden to marry Bulgarian citizens, nor could Jews have maids of Bulgarian origin, he noted. In fact, at that time, there were quite many people who were happy with such legislation. "There are documents, letters from rank and file citizens or entire organisations that insist that the law should include other non-Bulgarian groups besides Jews, for example Armenians," he said.

Other anti-Jewish laws were passed in Bulgaria, such as the Combating Real Estate Speculation Act, which made it almost impossible for Jews to own real estate. Jews were left to own only their homes, if they had additional properties they had to be seized, Stanev added.

Bulgaria marks the 80th anniversary of the salvation of Bulgarian Jews in 2023. The anniversary raises many historical and historiographical questions about who the rescuers were, what made this great humanitarian act possible and why it happened in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), in partnership with the Alef Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation Center, set itself the task of answering these questions with the help of prominent scholars, public figures, and experts on the subject with a series of articles to recall the events of the past and the participants in them, and to present the importance of the rescue and the rescuers.